StorageNetworks shifts focus to software

Posted on July 01, 2002

Former storage service provider (SSP) pioneer StorageNetworks is shifting gears to focus on delivering storage management software, while continuing to support its managed service customers. With its first customer-installable software, the company will compete with software vendors such as BMC, Computer Associates, and Veritas, according to Peter Bell, chairman and CEO of StorageNetworks.

This month, StorageNetworks will ship STORos StorageManager 5.0, which supports storage area network (SAN), network-attached storage (NAS), direct-attached storage (DAS), and backup management in a single application. The company is banking on the software's combined SAN, NAS, and DAS support as a key feature that differentiates its product, says Bell.

Also, StorageNetworks is promoting the "enterprise storage utility" model for companies that want better utilization of their storage assets without contracting out for managed services. "Our legacy of delivering storage services plays nicely into delivering a storage utility," says Bell.

The new software is the latest version of code that the company developed to deliver storage-on-demand and storage management services. STORos v5.0 focuses on managing several parts of the storage environment, including assets, configuration, capacity planning, infrastructure performance, event and status management, backup and restore, and service levels.

The software was in beta testing for six months. Pricing will be based on the number of network connections.

This is not the first time StorageNetworks has changed its focus. The company started with a storage utility model, building storage points of presence (S-POPs) that would provide end users with storage-on-demand. It then focused on Internet data centers and eventually concentrated on enabling other service providers to deliver storage-on-demand and other services.

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